Balfron Matters 


Monday 26 June 2023

 Weekly communication for staff 

Dear colleagues,

We have made it!  What a productive, busy and challenging year it has been.  So much to look back on with pride.  Thank you all for your respective contributions to a successful year.

The recent fire alarms have been a real cause for concern on so many levels.  Please do not let young people out of class unless they absolutely have to go.  We will be tracking movement out of class through the Google form that Phil has devised and asked for feedback on.  It would be useful to pilot that this week. Along with colleagues from Bellrock, we will continue to monitor the toilets throughout this week.  There has been a significant improvement already. 

It is a busy last week but I hope that everyone will be able to make CfE on Wednesday and the staff bring and share lunch on Thursday. 

We are going to miss our temporary colleagues who have contributed so much throughout the year.  Massive thanks to our super probationers: Alison, Amy, Bethany, Calum, Holly, Marcus, Matthew, Perrine and Sammy.  Huge thanks also to Fiona Galloway, Lizzie Johnstone and Lauren Moss who provided a life-line when the technology staffing situation needed a creative solution.  The STEM courses provided a rich, enjoyable and worthwhile experience for our young people - we are very grateful to you and our Science colleagues for being so flexible and solution focused. Thanks also to David Martinez and Scott Mason for their flexibility in Modern Languages and Social Subjects and contribution to the wider school.  I hope you will all look back at this year and your time at Balfron High with affection.

Congratulations to Hannah Denholm and Gary Dalziel who have both secured jobs closer to home.  They will both be back for a short time at the start of the new session before moving to Hermitage Academy and Lenzie Academy respectively.  Good luck and congratulations to David Whiteford who starts his new PT post at Mearns Castle High School in the new term.  They are lucky to have you all! Please join me in wishing them all success and happiness in their new posts. 

Thank you all for your hard work, commitment and enthusiasm throughout the year.  It has certainly had its moments but you have made it successful none the less. I hope that you enjoy a well deserved break and a fantastic holiday when it comes.

SQA results are shared with pupils on Tuesday 8 August and I'm grateful to PTs who are able to come in to phone and touch base with all of our candidates on Wednesday 9 August.

Our inservice day programme is shared below - no pressure to look at it until you have to!!

Have a great last week of term and thank you.  Never doubt that you make a difference.

Elaine

This week at Balfron High:


Mon: S2 Reading School Assembly

Maths interviews


Tues: S3 Reading School Assembly

Geography & RME interviews


Wed: S4 Reading School Assembly

P2: Army Careers Info Drop-in

BHS Footgolf championships

CfE - Flexible Learning


Thurs: S5/6 Reading School Assembly


Fri: End of term, 1pm.

Balfron High School Sport Highlights 2022-23

Balfron Sports Awards 2023.mp4

Our Summer Art & Design Exhibition 2023

Click the link below to see our fantastic pupil work of the session.  Tabs at the tob of the site allow you to peruse by age group or course.  Massive thanks to our art team for their inspirational guidance and for allowing us to clebrate this work by pulling it together.

Equally Safe at School - Next steps (EJ)

I would like to thank you all for your contributions to our whole school approach to discrimination as we start to adopt the Equally Safe at School (ESAS) approach in Balfron.


It has been a very busy couple of months and during that time we have made significant progress,  however as you are aware we are very much at the start of this journey and we need to continue to build on this and keep the momentum going.


I have had many conversations with staff over the last number of weeks and it is evident that staff want to work together to continue to improve our ethos and culture, through dealing effectively with all forms of discrimination.


I have included several relevant attachments for your information - staff survey response graphs, staff survey response data and the Rape Crisis Sexual Violence Prevention Programme. 


I would be grateful if you could provide any feedback or suggestions in relation to next steps.  I am very keen to gather your views on this whole school approach to gender based violence (ESAS). Please feel free to see me in person or to email me directly.


Thank you for all your support and contributions.


Elaine J

ESAS_ Survey results - Graphs.pdf
ESAS_ Survey results - tabular.pdf
FVRCC_New_Programme_Aug23.pdf

Last week at Balfron

When people outside your walls know what you are doing, it gives value to those inside

Photos from last week include: 

Inservice Day Programme: 14-15 August 2023

Inset Aug 23

Assemblies - June

BHS Assembly Programme June 2023.docx

New for session 23/24

Learning & Teaching Working Groups 

At August in service, all teaching staff will have the opportunity to sign up for a working group of their choice.  The working groups are all focussed around learning & teaching - you may recognise the headings as from Quality Indicator 2.3. We have eleven Working Group Lead teachers who will lead their groups to plan, develop and evaluate their professional learning within an area of their interest. 


We will celebrate our learning in a Pedagogy Festival, at April In service 2024.


The groups and their leads are as follows:


Climate for Learning - Routines and Relationships for inclusive, productive learning environments - Connor H, Andrew L & Shari L

Digital Technology - Exploring technologies to enhance learning experiences - Dougie S & Cari M

Lesson Structure - What we do and how we keep can doing it even better - Pam G & Fiona F

Meeting Learners Needs - Exploring the practices that make our lessons more accessible - Nicola D & Oonagh M

Formative Assessment - Developing our feedback loops and increasing challenge - Andrew B & Alistair B


CLPL Corner


Vocabulary


Many thanks to Nicola who has created a quick read on The Frayer Model for this week's insert.


We can look forward to more of these great tips on 

Meeting Learners Needs next session.




The Frayer's model is a graphic organiser that helps pupils learn and organise vocabulary across the school. It can be used in any subject. 


It helps them target specific vocabulary and apply their knowledge by giving examples, non-examples (antonyms), characteristics and symbols or illustrations.


 This is helpful for any word in any subject, but it can be particularly helpful when used to highlight when the same word (for example, 'factor') is used in different ways in different subjects. 


Nicola Douglas

 CLPL opportunities


Leadership courses for session 23/24 

Sign up now!


There are a number of fully funder professional learning programmes available from Education Scotland for next session.  Applications are now open.  Of particular interest, I wanted to highlight the Educator Leadership Programme (ELP):



For aspiring middle leaders, applications are open to the Aspiring to Middle Leadership course.


For Middle Leaders, applications are currently open for Middle Leaders Leading Change – Education Scotland (Rona Grant) has written about the programme here and for even more inspiration; have a look at her brilliant February Blog post: Middle Leadership Glue (education.gov.scot).


Digital CLPL  


 always available through the links below

Below is a link to Dougie's Tech Tips Play list.  Always worth a look - great tip on getting rid of adverts from presentations using YouTube this week.

External CLPL

BHS Professional Learning Notice board. 

Search. Click. Book

Powering up our seniors for successful studying

Teacher's Guide to the BHS Study Planner.webm

Teachers Guide to the BHS Study Planner - 3 min watch

Weekly Study Planner 2022

BHS senior study planner

e-sgoil weekly online supported study timetable

One portal to hold all information

ERP MyPortal.pdf
Collegiate Calendar 2022-23

Health & Wellbeing - Counselling for staff

Did you know counselling is available through Stirling Council?


Employee Counselling is available through our Occupational Health provider, People Asset Management (PAM)

There are a few ways employees can request Counselling. 

If you want some more information about counselling, what to expect or looking for self-help resources then please pop in and see Karin Figliolini or drop her an email.

Useful Links

Reducing+Risks+in+Schools+guidance+-+version+6.1+-+September+2021.pdf
BHS SIP & Recovery Plan 202-22.docx